Panama Papers: Who's accused of what

Mossack Fonseca's data leak provided a rare insight into offshore finance, and journalists are trying to make sure you get why it's a big deal.Video provided by Newsy
Newslook

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mauricio Macri, president of the Argentine Republic, Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine, and the Hong Kong offices of Panama-headquartered law firm Mossack Fonseca.(Photo: AP, AFP/Getty Images, EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY)

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story misstated the number of world leaders linked to offshore holdings. The documents identify 12 current or former leaders and 60 family members or associates.

The anonymous leak Sunday of 11.5 million confidential documents belonging to a law firm in Panama detailing how rich, famous and powerful people hid their wealth raises fresh questions about global financial regulation.

The Panama Papers show how 140 politicians from more than 50 countries, including 12 current or former world leaders, have links to Mossack Fonseca. The files, analyzed by 107 media organizations in 78 countries, reveal suspected cases of money laundering, sanctions evasion and tax avoidance.

Most of the people at the center of the allegations have not publicly responded to the breach of the vast trove of documents and data initially shared with the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. The leak includes emails, financial spreadsheets, passport information and corporate records from 1977 through to the end of 2015.

WHO IS ACCUSED OF WHAT?

Mossack Fonseca

The offices of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama City on April 3, 2016. Hundreds of companies registered in Nevada list "officers" that are actually companies sharing the same address as this building.(Photo: AP)

The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which helped coordinate the dossier's publication, said the documents involve 214,488 companies and 14,153 clients of Mossack Fonseca. The firm said it has not committed any crime and is a responsible member of the global financial community.

Iceland's PM

Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson.(Photo: AFP)

Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson is accused of having an undeclared interest in his country's failed banks, which he then hid behind an offshore company, a portion of which he later sold to his wife for $1. He says he has not done anything wrong. He is facing calls for his resignation.

Vladimir Putin

Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, left, escorts then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, center, and President Dmitry Medvedev on a tour of a former palace in St. Petersburg in 2009.(Photo: AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's name does not appear on any of the records published Sunday. However, the documents show that many of his associates and close friends – including musician Sergei Roldugin, godfather to his daughter Maria and the man who introduced him to his wife, Lyudmilla – made millions from deals that would have been hard to do without his knowledge. The Kremlin said Putin was being targeted for political reasons. Ahead of the leak, it also said an organization was trying to smear him.

Bashar Assad

Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview given to Russian Ria Novosti and Sputnik news agencies in Damascus.(Photo: EPA)

Syrian President Bashar Assad is linked to the Panama Papers through two cousins, Rami and Hafez Makhlouf. The brothers control key gateways to Syria's oil and telecoms industries. For a period, any foreign firms that wanted to do business in Syria needed to be cleared by them. They have not commented, nor has Assad.

Argentina's Mauricio Macri

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri at the 46th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2016.(Photo: EPA)

Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri, son of an Italian-born business tycoon, did not declare an interest in a company called Fleg Trading Ltd., of which he was a director with his brother and father from 1998 when it was incorporated in the Bahamas to 2009 when it was dissolved, according to the documents. A representative for Macri said the president did not declare that interest because he had no active funds in it. Macri did disclose other foreign-held accounts with balances of several million dollars in the United States, the documents state.

The Australian Taxation Office said in a statement Monday it was investigating more than 800 wealthy Australians for possible tax evasion linked to their dealings with Mossack Fonseca. It said it had linked 120 out of the 800 individuals to an unnamed associate offshore services provider in Hong Kong.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose business empire includes TV channels, a shipyard and car plants, was found to hold assets offshore that include a European candy manufacturer, according to the documents. Potentially more embarrassing for him, though, is that he is alleged to have become the sole shareholder of a company that was set up in the British Virgin Islands just as Russian troops were headed to Ukraine to fight alongside separatists in August 2014. He has also repeatedly vowed to purge Ukrainian politics of its long association with corruption. Poroshenko's office said the offshore trust was in no way related to Ukraine's military or political situation and the trust followed accepted "market practice."

British Prime Minister David Cameron says he mishandled the row over his shares in his father's offshore business interests, which were exposed by the Panama Papers revelations. Video provided by AFP
Newslook

Demonstrators in Iceland gathered outside parliament banging barricades, a day after the prime minister's resignation over the Panama Papers scandal that propelled the Pirate Party to the top of polls ahead of a possible snap election.Video provided
Newslook

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power released the odds for various world leaders to resign as a result of the Panama Papers in light of Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson's decision to step down.
USA TODAY

Governments around the world are trying to contain the fallout from the publication of thousands of names of rich and powerful people who conducted offshore financial activity through a Panamanian law firm. (April 5)
AP

After leaked files showed the premier's wife owned an offshore firm with big claims on Iceland's collapsed banks, the deputy head of his party said on Tuesday Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson will step down.
USA TODAY

In today's "Morning Must Read," Bloomberg's Tom Keene discusses the far-reaching impact of a leaked report on the world's wealthy and powerful hiding money in banks and shell companies. He speaks on "Bloomberg GO."
Bloomberg

Iceland's prime minister is under pressure to quit after the leak of the 'Panama Papers' tax documents showed he and his wife used an offshore firm to allegedly hide million-dollar investments.
Newslook

Protesters rallied outside the Icelandic Parliament in the capital Reykjavik on Monday as anger mounted over the Prime Minister's alleged link to an offshore company that would represent a serious conflict of interest. (April 4)
AP